Month: July 2022

Genesis 21:14 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beer-Sheba.

The strife between Sarah and Hagar, and between Isaac and Ishmael, was great, and Sarah said to Abraham, ”Cast out this bondwoman and her son.” This was grievous to Abraham, for Ishmael was still his son, although not the son of promise. However, God said to Abraham, ”Do not be grieved. Do as Sarah asks. For in Isaac will your seed be called. But I will also make a nation out of Ishmael.”

As grievous as this was, Abraham responded in obedience to God. In order to obey he had to believe God for two things: 1) Isaac carries the Covenant Promise, and it will be from his seed that the ”Saving Seed” will come; 2) and God will take care of Ishmael and make a nation of him as well. Trust in God’s Word is necessary to do the good and right thing.

We also are called upon to believe God and do the difficult, even grievous, thing. It is exceedingly hard to surrender to God’s will and give up something dear to me, something I did, or made, or achieved. After all, it’s mine, I did it, I worked for it. But God says: No, it is not of My promise, My will, or My kingdom. Give it up. Cast it away. Pray the Lord’s Prayer.

God gives us the faith to let go, to let it go from my hands into God’s good hands. If it is not of God, not of faith, or not of the kingdom, cast it away. ”Seek first the kingdom of God.”

Genesis 21:4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded him.

God made covenant promises to Abraham out of sheer grace. Abraham received the Covenant and believed the Promise. Because of grace he obeyed God’s command, after faith was engendered in his heart. God had commanded circumcision for him and all the males in his household. Now he responded to God’s impossible gift of a son in his old age. He was 100 years and Sarah was 90 and post-menopausal. He waited and believed for 25 years. Who wouldn’t respond with obedience after such a miracle fulfillment?

Our Lord made a covenant with us in Holy Baptism and commanded us in Holy Communion to ”Do this.” Circumcision is a foreshadowing of the New Covenant Sacraments. We respond in faith and obedience by baptizing our family (at about eight days old) and participating in the Lord’s Supper (often). This is the outward,, visible Word of the covenant sealed by the blood of Jesus.

The Lord has done the same kind of impossible miracle in us by giving life to our dead-in-sin souls. This new life responds to grace by teaching and believing the covenant. We never get over, get used to, or get numbed to the wonderful grace, mercy, love, forgiveness, and salvation of God.

Genesis 20:17 So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children.

Abraham responded to God’s grace and salvation with prayer. After the Lord appeared to Abimelech in a dream and gave him a Word of life or death, he returned Sarah to Abraham and gave him gifts. Abraham responded to the Lord’s gracious deliverance with so much thanks and faith that he intercedes for Abimelech and his household. And the Lord responded by healing him and healing the barrenness of his house: he was healed and his wife and servants bore children. Children and family is one of the greatest blessings God gives. This was especially true in those days, and even today it remains a great blessing for us.

All of this, God’s protection, God’s Word, God’s deliverance, God’s answer to prayer, God’s healing, and God’s blessing, comes to us freely by the grace, mercy, love, goodness, and kindness of our Lord. He is faithful to His promises; and there is no merit or worthiness on our part. Abraham didn’t deserve His favor and blessing; we don’t deserve it. God is just love.

My proper response to the Gospel is to pray, praise, and give thanks. ”For all which it is my duty to thank and to praise, to serve and obey Him.” Prayer for self and intercession for others is the natural response to the gift of faith in His Grace. We do not pray to gain favor from God, but we pray because He has already granted favor and blessing. Prayer is response.

Genesis 20:8, 14 Therefore Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ears: and the men were sore afraid….And Abimelech took sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and womenservants, and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him Sarah his wife.

While Abimelech had Sarah in his harem, the Lord came to him in a dream and told him to restore Sarah to the man: ”You are a dead man. Restore the man his wife; he will pray for you and you will live, and if you don’t restore her you will surely die.” Abimelech responded to God’s word of judgment by not only returning Sarah, but he also gave Abraham gifts to make him wealthy; and he also gave him a thousand pieces of silver.

This incident reveals to us that God is faithful to His Covenant word of Promise: protection and blessing. God protected the mother of the promised Seed: God prevented Abimelech from touching Sarah. God blessed Abraham so that he could be a blessing to the nations: He kept him alive and made him rich. The Lord did this out of sheer grace, just because He promised. Abraham, in his unbelief, certainly didn’t deserve it. So our Lord makes and keeps His Promises to us on account of the New Covenant in the blood of Jesus Christ. Even when we waver in sin and unfaith, God is faithful.

The response of Abimelech’s servants was great fear (“sore afraid”). Fear is the proper believing response to God’s Word of judgment and mercy, or, Law and Gospel. ”Fearing God” means believing we are sinners deserving eternal death and believing the awe-inspiring love of God gracing us with eternal life. The Gospel gives the power to respond with fear and love, that is, to believe.

Genesis 20:2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.

For the second time Abraham is sojourning in a foreign land with his wife, Sarah, and for the second time he lies about Sarah. He said she was his sister. This was a half-truth since she was a half-sister, but the point of it was to deceive. However, that lie put Sarah in jeopardy, for Abimelech took her into his harem. Abraham had been called by God and given Covenant promises that will come to pass. Abraham believed God, but he also doubted His promise and could not fully trust in the Lord in this instance. He relied on human scheming and sin. The tension in Abraham builds: will Abraham’s developing faith mature? Will Sarah survive to bear the promised seed? The answer is Yes, but we are put in suspense.

We also believe God and trust Him for forgiveness and salvation, but unbelief lurks and we sometimes have doubts. God loves us so that He allows trials, temptations, doubts, and down times to come in order to grow and strengthen our faith, to be tested, to work out the salvation we have, and to learn by experience that God is still faithful and always good.

Genesis 19:32, 33, 35 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father….And they made their father drink wine that night [v. 35, also], and the firstborn went in [v. 35, and the younger arose], and lay with her father, and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.

Both daughters of Lot responded to the Lord’s deliverance from the world by going back into the ”world.” They saw that their fiancés rejected salvation and did not come with them, and that there was no man left in the city for them to have children with. They wanted to preserve their name, their family, their legacy, and so they took matters into their own hands in a most disgusting way. The self was more important to them than morality or faith in God.

We might think that we would never do such a thing, but we still take matters into our own hands, instead of trusting the Lord and leaving it in His hands. We will often do whatever we can to promote self, even if it involves sin. It not always so easy or simple to just respond to grace and salvation by living our lives believing God and thanking Him. So we do what we can to hear the gospel often, respond with thanks and praise always, and pray with faith.

Genesis 19:20, 26 Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let us escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live….But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

Fleeing the world entirely is tricky business. Jesus has saved us from the world and the coming judgment upon it. The world has the death sentence upon it and if we remain of the world we die with it. About Babylon (the world) Jesus says, ”Come out of her, my people.” Sodom is the world. The Lord rescues us from its judgment. Once we believe in Jesus’ salvation we escape the world. It is tricky because it is hard to know where to draw the line between in the world but not of the world. How do we enjoy the comforts and conveniences of life in the world and yet not be captured by worldly temptations?

We are called to a different life, to another world, to the eternal, spiritual kingdom. Lot recognized the dangers of Sodom and went along with the rescuing angels, but he wanted ”a foot in both worlds.” He didn’t want to completely leave city life and head for the hills. He asked to stay in a ”little city,” called Zoar. As it turned out, he later left Zoar anyway for he feared to dwell there, and he went to the mountains to dwell in a cave with his two daughters. But even then you could not take the world out of Lot, for he got drunk and had incestuous relations with his daughters.

Lot’s wife had the same yearning for the old worldly life; however she did not fare so well. In disobedience to the angels’ command, she stopped, turned around, and looked back. So she was turned into a pillar of salt. It may have just been curiosity; nevertheless, she looked back to the old evil way of life in the ”world.” We who have been saved from the world will still wistfully “look back” to worldly wealth and pleasures. The Holy Spirit in us struggles against the flesh that doesn’t want to entirely, completely, and forever leave the world behind.

Genesis 19:14 And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law.

The two sons in law of Lot were offered salvation from the coming judgment of God upon Sodom and Gomorrah. But these two citizens of Sodom rejected the offer of salvation in mocking unbelief. It seemed to them that Lot was mocking. They were living by sight, and they could not accept God’s Word with faith. Desiring to continue their sin city lifestyle they stubbornly refused to repent, not believing the Law and the coming judgment. They scoffed: there is no God and things will continue as they are. Refusing to believe the Law they also rejected the Gospel of Salvation. Therefore, they perished with the rest of the impenitent wicked of Sodom in the coming judgment of destruction. They had a chance to be saved, but they resisted both the Word of Law and the Word of Gospel. They mocked God by calling His messenger a mocker. Although this is man’s typical response, it was a bad choice.

In the Last Days scoffers and mockers will arise, saying, ”Where is the coming of the Lord? Where is the Judgment?” 2 Peter 3:3: ”Scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.” But The Judgment is coming! We can learn from those who perished in the Flood and in Sodom. Repent daily, and receive the offer of Salvation in the Gospel. Believe!

Genesis 19:2-3 And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you. into your servant’s house, and tarry all night and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night. And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat.

Two angels came to Sodom to see how great was the cry coming up from Sodom and Gomorrah, and to see how grievous was their sin. (They found out.) When Lot saw them he greeted them and bowed before them. The narrative does not tell us whether Lot knew they were angels or whether he was just extending customary Mideast hospitality. Hebrews 13:2: ”Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”

Either way, the only believing man in Sodom extended a warm welcome and showed generous hospitality to the strangers, who happened to be angels. Lot invited them to come in to his house and spend the night. He insisted, for he knew the sinful dangers of sleeping in the street. He baked bread and prepared a feast for them. As It turned out, Lot was right, and the cry was true: the Sodomites showed themselves to be as evil as the ”cry” purported them to be.

Lot responded to a visitation of the Lord by inviting and welcoming the strangers into his life. ”Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it to me.” The Lord may appear to us in the guise of a needy human.We respond with kindness. For the Lord has come to us in the word of the Gospel of Grace. We show hospitality to Him by believing the gospel. We invite Him into our life by faith and welcome Him every day. He responds to our hospitality by protecting and saving us, as the angels did for Lot.

Genesis 18:22, 32 And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the Lord….And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten’s sake.

The Word reveals to us the spiritual journey of Abraham: his faith grew, developed and matured over the years: from seed faith (his call), through wavering faith (his doubts), to bold faith (his prayer), and finally to faith for the impossible (sacrifice of Isaac). In this episode we see his bold faith response after the Lord took him into His confidence by sharing what He was going to do to Sodom and Gomorrah. The ”men” were determined to head for Sodom, but Abraham stood before the Lord. This was bold. It took great faith to believe he could converse with the Lord in prayer like this.

His persistent prayer was motivated by his love for his nephew Lot. (Love motivates us to pray persistently as well). He asked The Lord to spare the city if 50 righteous were found in it. God agreed. Then he waxed bolder and pled with the Lord for 45, 40, 30, 20, and finally 10 righteous in the city. God allowed this ”bargaining” to strengthen his faithful praying. God destroyed Sodom, but He answered Abraham’s prayer by going to great lengths to rescue Lot.

Our Lord Jesus gives two parables to encourage us to exercise bold faith in prayer: the Widow pleading before the Judge, and the Friend knocking on his Neighbor’s Door at Midnight. The Lord knows already how He is going to answer, but for our own good, for the exercising of our faith, and for developing a more intimate relationship with Him, He wants us to be bold and persistent in prayer.

Abraham responds with faith. Faith is righteousness. Our wonderful God and Savior grants both faith and righteousness by grace. Then He makes it grow.